Minories Hotel, London, United Kingdom

A Corian-clad colour wheel

Mackay + Partners has designed the stylish new 219 bed Minories Hotel in up-and-coming east London

Lighting up the face of east London, the state-of the art Minories Hotel, designed by Mackay + Partners has been given a new contemporary identity. The building comprises two forms of seven-storey ‘decorative cube’ frontage, and a 16-storey glass tower to the rear. The architects experimented with Corian on the façade, a new and innovative approach that moves away from the use of steel and glass or traditional Portland stone. The result is an entirely unique and contemporary design.

LED lighting behind the façade allows the building to be bathed in slowly changing and transforming colour, giving the hotel a playful and fun image, flying in the face of other conventional, bland hotels. This is the first time that this combination of Corian and LED lighting has been used in London. The glass structure at the rear of the hotel is set in colour contrast to the front white Corian cube.

A high standard of sustainability has been achieved in all aspects of the development to reduce the environmental impact and to deliver a supportive, sustainable working building. The building also uses a number of intelligent building systems to help achieve a BREEAM excellent energy rating, including thermally efficient facades, heat recovery systems and green roofs, which help thermal efficiency and mitigate rainwater run-off.

Gwyn Richards of City of London praised the unique building: ‘The building’s vibrant and playful facade demonstrates that new hotel buildings need not have bland, monotonous and repetitive facades. The ground-breaking use of Corian as a facing material is both innovative and convincing both during the day and illuminated at night. The building demonstrates the importance of an ingenious architectural approach being carried through to implementation in terms of the integrity of the original architectural concept but also the highest quality of detailing and materials. The building sits comfortably within its surroundings whilst creating a highly convincing work of contemporary architecture which can be proud of its place in the city’s dynamic architectural character.”